Sins of the Mother
by xSweetiePiex
Summary: Kirsten’s addiction starts to get out of control just in time for Ryan’s first Mother’s Day with the Cohens. How will he cope with yet another alcoholic mother? Will this tear him away from his adopted family? Set in season 1.


**Disclaimer: I do not own The O.C. nor am I making any money off of this!**

**Summary: Kirsten's addiction starts to get out of control just in time for Ryan's first Mother's Day with the Cohens. How will he cope with yet another alcoholic mother? Will this tear him away from his adopted family? Set in season 1.**

**Sins of the Mother**

Kirsten woke up with a start. She glanced at the clock, thinking she overslept. _8:45._ She placed her head back down on the pillow gingerly. She hadn't overslept. In fact, she was up too early. At least, too early for a Sunday. She lifted her hands and rubbed her eyes. She felt like crap. She had had a bit too much to drink at that gala last night. What was that gala for, anyway? She couldn't remember. Actually, she really didn't care. It was merely another get together… another invitation for stress and drama… and another opportunity to drink in a socially acceptable environment. She didn't want to think about this anymore. Her head pounded. She felt like she was going to be sick. The sun poured in the room. She rolled over to escape the natural invader. Finding the other side of the bed empty, Kirsten assumed that Sandy had left early for surfing. _Why was he always surfing so much?_ She felt like she didn't even know the man she married anymore. Without a second thought about anything, she drifted back to sleep, still exhausted from her night before.

In the pool house, Ryan was already awake. He had woken up extra early to clean up. Today was special. It was Mother's Day. Even more, it was the first Mother's Day Ryan was going to spend with the Cohens… and the first Mother's Day that he **wouldn't** be with his _own_ mother. Ryan wasn't sure how to react to all this. He was sad that he couldn't be with his mom, yet happy that he could be with the Cohens. This day was almost as upsetting as the day his mom abandoned him. Ryan sighed. Sure, his mom was full of problems… the drugs, booze, beatings, boyfriends… but she was still his mom. No matter what. Ryan bit his lower lip hard to keep his emotions in check. _Only the weak cry._ He told himself. Ryan glanced over at the card he had made for Kirsten. He poured his soul out in the cardboard piece of paper. Even though the card was sealed up in an envelope, he still remembered exactly what he had written:

**Kirsten, **

**Thanks so much for everything that you've done for me. I don't know where I'd be without you and Sandy in my life. I know that I've caused trouble in the past, so I just wanted to apologize for that… and promise that I'll try harder. I know that I've never been the easiest person to put up with. I just wanted to thank you for being a mother to me when my own couldn't take care of me.**

**Happy Mother's Day!**

**Ryan**

He didn't really have much money to get a gift for her. Seth had approached him the week before and wanted to know if they could go in together for a gift. Ryan readily agreed. He wasn't very good at this gift-giving sort of thing. He had never really bought his mom any sort of Mother's Day gift, well other than some cigarettes or beer. Ryan was totally lost at this type of mother-son thing.

Ryan was still entranced in thought when he heard a knocking on the glass of the pool house door. He glanced over.

"Come in." He said quietly, knowing full well that the person on the other side wouldn't hear him.

Without waiting to make sure Ryan had indeed invited him in, Sandy opened the door. "Hey, kid." The man greeted, walking in and taking a seat next to Ryan.

"Hey." Ryan answered. He was tired. He couldn't sleep last night. The party he attended with the Cohens kept him out late, and after a restless night of worrying about Mother's Day, he was really zonked.

"You're up early." Sandy stated suspiciously. He eyed the impeccable pool house. Ryan could see the concern in his eyes. He knew that his guardian probably thought he was going to run away or something. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." Ryan answered, rather unconvincingly. "I was just going to go inside and see if you needed anything later after I finished straightening up around here." Pausing a moment, he added. "I thought you were going surfing."

"I was. But then, I thought that breakfast in bed might be the best way to start Mother's Day." Sandy eyed him wearily. "You sure everything's okay?"

"Positive." Ryan answered. Sandy could tell he something was wrong. But he decided that he shouldn't push him. The last thing he wanted to do was push Ryan too far and risk him shutting his guardian out of his life.

"Okay." Sandy sighed, getting up. "You wanna help me with breakfast, then?"

"Sure… but I don't think anything I can make will be able to compete with your world famous bagels…" Ryan tried to ease Sandy's worries by joking. He actually did this a lot. Sandy always seemed more confident with Ryan if he joked around. And, honestly, Ryan felt more comfortable around Sandy that way, too.

"Ah… you may be right, my friend. But that is just a risk we'll have to take." Sandy slung his arm around the boy, walking towards the main house.

When they entered the kitchen, they saw a pajama clad Seth sitting at the table, devouring a bowl of Captain Crunch.

"Good to see you conscious, Son." Sandy greeted, still in a jocular mood.

"And top of the morning to you too, dad." Seth shot back.

"Since when are you Irish?" Ryan asked.

Seth shot Ryan a look. Ryan just laughed slightly and shook his head. "No fair!" Seth yelled in mock-anger. "How come you can express all your thoughts and feelings in one look and I can't?"

Ryan glared at him.

"My point exactly!"

Sandy, who had been watching his sons tease each other, finally broke in. "So, is anyone going to help me with this or not?"

"Help you with what?" Seth questioned.

"I thought we could make your mother breakfast in bed."

"What is this, _The Brady Bunch_? Who makes breakfast in bed? I've never even seen mom eat breakfast!" Seth retorted. Sandy looked hurt. Seth seemed oblivious to how his words affected his father.

"I'll brew some coffee." Ryan offered. He got up and made his way to the coffee pot. He sent Seth one of his world famous looks. He hoped Seth would get the message that this was important to his father.

"Fine! Fine! I'll… make some toast or something." Making a big production, but finally getting Ryan's message, Seth dragged himself up, leaving his empty bowl on the table, and went to the toaster.

"Thank you, boys." Sandy told them, looking over at Seth, and then Ryan. Now that Ryan was through joking around with Seth, Sandy noticed an emptiness, a reminiscences… almost a longing in his eyes. Sandy knew that Ryan probably had never had a real Mother's Day… or a real mother for that matter. Sandy had every intention of changing that.

Meanwhile, Kirsten was upstairs trying to fall back asleep. Lately her drinking problems had been growing more and more out of control. Most of the times, she was so used to the liquor that she was never hung over. But last night, she must have drunk more than she could handle. Is that what happened? Now, she wasn't even sure. It scared her that she couldn't even remember what she did last night. This was not a good sign. Although she was tired, she couldn't manage to fall back asleep. She forcefully threw her blankets off of herself and sat up. She dragged her feet towards the stairs and made her way into the kitchen, still donning the camisole tank top and pajama pants she had passed out in last night. She was pretty sure that Sandy would be out surfing and the boys would still asleep. After all, 9 am on a Sunday morning was pretty early for her family.

So, when Kirsten finally got to the kitchen, she was more than surprised to see the whole family rushing around making breakfast.

"What's going on?" She mumbled. She was still a little drunk, along with being hung over.

"Oh, sweetie." Sandy abandoned his station assembling breakfast to go to his wife's side. "Happy Mother's Day! We were going to surprise you with breakfast in bed, but you caught us!" Sandy wrapped his arms around his wife. She pushed him back slightly. "What's wrong, honey?"

"Nothing." Kirsten mumbled. She was still pretty out of it. Seth sent a concerned, yet naïve look to his father. Ryan shook his head knowingly. He looked down for a split second, before getting a blue mug and filling it with piping hot black coffee. He placed the mug down on the counter to cool. He knew from experience that coffee helped with hangovers. Seth walked over to where Sandy had led Kirsten to sit down on the couch.

"Want something to eat? I made toast!" Seth started. "And believe me, mom, once you have some of my toast, you will never want dad's dinky bagels again!" Seth continued, ignoring his mom's grunts. "Mom… what's wrong?" Seth finally noticed Kirsten's discomfort. The mere mention of food had sent her stomach into violent convulsions, and she repelled the offending contents of her stomach fiercely onto the carpeted floor. Kirsten quickly raised a hand to her mouth. Sandy began to rub her back and whisper soothing words in her mouth. Before Sandy could even ask Seth to get a bucket, Ryan had returned with a bucket and a rag just in time for Kirsten to vomit again.

Noticing Ryan on his hands and knees cleaning up the mess, Sandy quietly whispered. "It's okay, Ryan, I'll clean that up."

"No, I got it." Ryan went back to scrubbing away. "Don't worry, I won't ruin the carpet or anything."

"I know you won't. But that's not the point." Sandy stopped arguing when he saw the guilty look in Ryan's eyes. "Boys, I'm going to take your mom upstairs. She isn't feeling too well." Sandy announced. With that, Sandy took Kirsten back up to their room.

Ryan glanced over at Seth. His look of bewilderment made Ryan feel awful. Not that he wasn't feeling pretty awful already. Ryan knew the signs of alcoholism. He could spot them a mile away. His mom was an alcoholic. He knew that Kirsten was in trouble. He had seen the warning signs. But he chose to ignore them. He chose to believe that Kirsten was too strong… too rich… too motherly… too _perfect_ to be affected by alcoholism. It was Ryan's fault. This all was Ryan's fault. At least, according to _Ryan_.

**TBC… please review! Thanks!**


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